Over halfway through Sep! Ugh! At least it’s gonna be 88 today in NYC. Summer, don’t leave us!
The Pulse Of Radio reports this morning Five Finger Death Punch owes a lot of its current success to the band’s ability to write songs that appeal especially to soldiers, according to Stereogum. With the group’s sixth studio effort, Got Your Six, selling 114,000 copies last week to debut at Number Two on the Billboard chart, Stereogum suggests the band has built a relationship with listeners in the military in a way other bands haven’t. Even the title of the new album is a military expression.
From the start, the band has shown its support for U.S. troops, visiting Iraq in 2010 and 2012 to play for soldiers stationed there. Singer Ivan Moody told Lou Brutus at the time about performing for members of the nation’s military: “The troops were just so receptive and so appreciative that we were there. You only get glimpses, you know, on the news over here, 30 seconds, maybe a minute long — don’t really get to see what these guys are going through, and it’s just such a life-changing experience for us. More bands need to go there, man.”
Guitarist Zoltan Bathory said in an interview with Loudwire in 2013, promoting the military-themed video for the song “Wrong Side Of Heaven,” that the band employs a lot of veterans, adding, “Every time you can help with something it’s great, so we had many drivers, those were veterans, guitar techs — so it’s an ongoing thing and every time we can employ veterans we do.” The song and video itself were intended to draw attention to the plight of veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The group set up 5fdp4vets.com, which sells merch to raise money and provides links to organizations that offer help. Bathory said in the same interview that soldiers have donated their dog tags to the band for display as part of their stage backdrop on tour. Look for Lou to sit down with Zoltan next weekend at Sonic Boom in Madison and listen for the interview on hardDrive and hardDrive XL!
LOL I totally L O V E Dave Grohl. And you non-believers, all you have to do is read this story from Pulse of Radio!
It might not come as much of a surprise considering his old-school tastes, but Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl prefers seeing cigarette lighters raised in the air instead of cell phones at his band’s concerts. According to Spin, Grohl told an audience in Portland, OR on Monday night (Sep 14th), “Ladies and gentlemen, I would like for you to light this rock show with any sort of illuminating device you are holding in your hands. Cigarette lighters are preferred, because that’s the f**king old school s**t.” Grohl added he preferred the show “look like a Scorpions video than a Deadmau5 video,” referring to the Canadian DJ who is one of the leading names in house and electronic music.
Also during the Portland show, Grohl shared a conspiracy (love Dave’s raps) that has been making its way around the Internet, asserting that Grohl didn’t actually break his leg last June in a fall from a stage. He told the crowd, “I’m really into the idea of a conspiracy theory, I think it’s f**kin’ rad. What if I didn’t break my f**kin’ leg? What if I jumped off stage and I fell on the ground, and I made it all look like it was a f**kin’ emergency? . . . And then I get somebody else’s X-ray of a broken leg, and I make it into a T-shirt, and we make millions of f**king dollars. And I design this f**king awesome throne, so I don’t have to f**king stand up any more! Imagine that.”
Foo Fighters’ current North American tour ends in mid-October. The band plays on Thursday night (Sep 17th) at a benefit in San Francisco for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
A grand jury in Albemarle County, Virginia has indicted Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr. in the killing of Morgan Harrington, the 20-year-old Metallica fan who vanished after leaving one of the band’s concerts, only for her remains to be found several months later. Matthew also has been charged with abduction with intent to defile. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Morgan’s mother, Gil Harrington, told WDBJ: “That the person responsible will be brought to justice, there’s a lot of satisfaction in that. Something as heinous as taking someone’s life should have consequences. Today, finally, the domino cascade of consequences for Jesse Matthew for killing Morgan Harrington has started.”
Matthew was scheduled to be arraigned on Wednesday (Sep 16) in Albemarle County Circuit Court. He will also go on trial in July 2016 for last year’s murder of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham. Morgan Harrington vanished while hitchhiking home from the band’s show on the Virginia Tech campus on Oct 17th, 2009. Her remains were found on a farm about 10 miles from the venue in January 2010.
Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo told us at the time how he felt when he first heard about the tragic incident: “I mean, I was crushed. Stuff like this just really, really bums me out, especially when you are a parent and you have children. I mean, it’s the worst thing that you could ever imagine.“
Metallica actively assisted in attempts to find first Harrington and then her killer for more than three years, starting almost immediately after her disappearance when frontman James Hetfield called Dan Harrington and asked what the band could do. Hetfield did public service announcements for the FBI and the band added $50,000 to the $100,000 reward already offered by the Harringtons for information on their daughter’s murder. The band also invested another $50,000 in a scholarship named in her memory.
Police investigators got a break in the case in Sep 2014 when they found evidence linking Matthew to Harrington’s murder while searching his house. Matthew was a suspect at the time in the abduction of Graham, an 18-year-old who vanished on Sep 13th of that year. Witnesses and video cameras placed Graham with a man believed to be Matthews. Her remains were found last Oct in the same area.
Well. it wasn’t a Pepsi commercial, but TMZ reports Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell suffered severe burns on the set of the music video for his new single, “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart.” Cornell was doing a stunt where he was taking part in a mock hanging and had a liquid chemical singeing a noose tied around his neck. The stunt didn’t go to plan and had to be shot multiple times. The chemicals eventually rubbed off on Cornell’s shoulder and back, leaving him with second degree burns. Cornell’s face was not burned in the accident. (Thank GOD!)
According to a report from Alternative Press, Rage Against The Machine bassist Tim Commerford seems to have gotten bored with his Future User project already and debuted his new band, Wakrat, earlier this week at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. Rage guitarist Tom Morello was in attendance, calling the band an “ultra-heavy power trio.”
Been listening to the new Sevendust album, Kill The Flaw, which will be out Oct 02. I gotta tell ya, Sevendust fans, you will be B L O W N away by how AWESOME it is! And the band is coming in today and I can not WAIT to talk to them! More on that tomorrow. Have a great day!
And don’t forget, your chance to talk to the two frontmen of the hardDrive Live Tour, Matt Heafy of Trivium and Tremonti’s Mark Tremonti, happens this Sunday at 6 PM ET on the hardDriveRadio APP! SO get it NOW for free in the app store or Google Play!